Jimmy Carter has been out of office for nearly 44 years, but he is continuing to reach milestones in his post-presidency, which is the longest of any former chief executive by more than a dozen years. Carter, who left office in 1981, celebrates his 100th birthday on October 1, 2024, joining a group of roughly 101,000 American centenarians who make up 0.03% of the U.S. population.
Carter reaching his 100th birthday is especially incredible considering that the former president has been in hospice care since February 2023. At the time, most news outlets reported that Carter would be spending his “final days” at home. Before that, he had already defied the odds by surviving metastatic melanoma, which spread to his liver and brain in 2015, as well as several falls and a hip replacement in his 90s. Jimmy Carter’s wife of 77 years, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, passed away in November 2023 at age 96. The couple had been married since 1946.
In his home state of Georgia, the celebrations of the 39th president’s centenary include a 100-mile bike ride, a film festival, and a tribute concert. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s hometown of Plains is hosting a community concert and a military flyover.
According to his family, Jimmy Carter is frail and spends much of his time sleeping, though Carter, a Democrat, is reportedly keenly interested in following the 2024 presidential campaign. Carter is unlikely to attend the planned events in his honor and will instead spend his birthday at the same home where he and Rosalynn spent most of their time since the early 1960s (except for stints in Georgia’s governor’s mansion and the White House.)
With so many decades in the public eye, Jimmy Carter’s life story is well known to many Americans. Born in Plains, Georgia, in 1924, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1953. After his father’s death, he revived his family’s peanut-growing business before entering politics in the 1960s as a Democrat in the Georgia State Senate. He served as governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, then defeated incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. Carter would lose his own reelection bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Though most assessments of Carter’s record as president are decidedly mixed, with his single term marked by high unemployment and inflation rates and the Iran hostage crisis as low points, his post-presidency has been widely praised for a commitment to humanitarian efforts.
The president and the post-president:
- During his lifetime, Carter has seen 16 other presidents come and go (besides himself). He was born during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.
- The next longest-lived president was George H.W. Bush, who died at age 94 in 2018. Bush, who served as a military pilot during WWII, memorably celebrated his 80th and 90th birthdays by skydiving.
- In 1982, Carter founded the Carter Center, which has been dedicated to advancing human rights and promoting humanitarian efforts, including the near-eradication of Guinea worm disease.
- For many years, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were actively involved in Habitat for Humanity. The organization is commemorating Carter’s 100th birthday by building 30 homes in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- Jimmy Carter received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He has published numerous books, winning three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for audio recordings of his books.
